Four Captures, Four Releases (3)

At the Daoye River, the Rattan Armor Army under Wutugu stood locked against the vanguard of Shu.

The general at the head of that vanguard was Wei Yan.

"...What in the world is that?"

Wei Yan narrowed his eyes, muttering as he took in the enemy's appearance.

"So that's rattan armor, is it?"

They were a stark contrast to the Shu soldiers in their finely crafted plate. The enemy host had clad itself in armor woven from rattan vine. A few of Wei Yan's men scoffed at how flimsy it looked beside their own.

"Show these outsiders the power of the rattan soldiers!"

Wutugu's voice rolled out like thunder. The rattan troops roared back and surged forward, fording the current as if the river were nothing at all.

Their way of fighting was brutally simple. No tactics. No stratagems. They simply crashed into the enemy and slaughtered whatever stood in their path — so reckless that the very idea of a formation seemed foreign to them.

"Coming at us that wide open — do they take us for a joke?"

Light as the rattan was, they moved with startling speed.

"Yuanrong crossbows to the front!"

At Wei Yan's command, the wagons bearing the repeating crossbows ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rolled into a single line.

"Loose!"

The Yuanrong repeating crossbows fired as one. A dense rain of bolts blotted out the dry sky in an instant — the same secret weapon that had shattered Meng Huo's armies and sent them fleeing in utter disorder. The arrows poured down like a cloudburst and swallowed the rattan troops whole.

And yet —

A hollow clatter rang out across the riverbank. The bolts that had come on like a flood struck the rattan armor and dropped to the earth, spent and useless, as if they had smashed against solid rock.

"W-what?!"

"The arrows aren't getting through!"

Shu's hidden weapon had failed to inflict even meaningful harm. The soldiers reeled with shock. Wei Yan only watched the enemy with cold, wintry eyes.

"Don't just stand there gawking! They're coming!!"

The rattan troops were already at their throats. A Shu soldier swept his masterwork blade in a vicious arc — and the cut, fierce as it was, died against the rattan as emptily as the arrows had. Spear-thrusts fared no better.

"Our attacks aren't landing?"

The man whose sword had been turned stared, eyes wide, unable to believe what he had just seen.

"Haha! A blade that dull couldn't even scratch rattan armor!"

The masterwork swords, forged through Po Yuan's metallurgy, could shear through bamboo in a single stroke. The rattan had turned them aside as if it were nothing. Emboldened, the rattan troops bellowed and fell upon the Shu ranks.

But the men they faced were Wei Yan's own household troops — among the bravest in all of Shu. The melee began in earnest, and the fighting held even. Shu's plate, too, had been refined by Po Yuan's craft, and the rattan soldiers' weapons could not deal any great damage through it. Wei Yan's men, renowned for how thoroughly he drilled them, refused to yield an inch of spirit. Blades and spears could not pierce the rattan, so they stabbed for the gaps between the plates and somehow kept the fight alive.

The two sides were locked in a deadlock. Watching the field, Wei Yan swallowed a low sound in his throat.

So it's just as that brat said. Again.

Before they had ever crossed blades with Meng Huo's forces, Guan Suo had given them a warning.

Zhuge Liang had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠given Wei Yan the vanguard and ordered him to learn the rattan army's nature through a probing engagement.

To think that whelp would be right yet again.

No one living could match Wei Yan at drilling soldiers. But he was arrogant to the bone, a man who looked down on everyone around him — and it galled him that Guan Suo kept leaping past him to claim merit. The only reason he had stepped aside and let the boy take the glory at the Yue River was that Guan Suo had saved their lord, Liu Bei. Wei Yan had withdrawn quietly then. It had not been because he liked the boy.

"All forces, fall back!"

As Shu began, little by little, to give ground, Wei Yan gave the order to withdraw. Zhuge Liang had sent them out to test whether spear and sword truly failed against the rattan, just as Guan Suo had claimed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— and if the weapons would not bite, they were to retreat. To stubbornly chase glory now would be to break a military order. Wei Yan had no choice. He pulled his men back without another word.

"Hah! These foreign dogs are cowards!"

Wutugu bellowed in triumph as the enemy vanguard fell away.

From a distance, Meng Huo had been watching the rattan army's display, and he saw it all.

"Ohh! Isn't that magnificent?!"

He clenched both fists, flushed with joy.

"The Shu army that plagued us so badly — falling back like that, without a fight!!"

Just as the beast troops had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠done, the Rattan Armor Army had smashed Shu aside with ease. Their power was nothing short of astonishing.

"Huaman, what do you think? With strength like that, we can drive Shu out for good, can't we?"

Meng Huo turned to his daughter at his side.

"...They're strong, I'll give them that."

But her face did not match the words. Huaman watched the field with a pinched, dissatisfied look, scanning the ranks as if she were searching for someone.

"Huaman? Are you feeling unwell?"

Her manner was so unlike her usual self that Meng Huo asked with real concern.

"I'm fine. I'll retire for now."

Huaman turned and walked back toward the tent in the camp.

"What's gotten into her?"

Meng Huo could not understand it. Wutugu had just won, and still she would not smile. Zhurong, who had been watching him steadily, turned her head and asked,

"...You. What are you going to do if you lose again?"

"What kind of unlucky talk is that, all of a sudden?"

To speak of defeat on a battlefield was to invite misfortune.

"If they capture you again, are you going to submit to Zhuge Liang?"

"That's..."

Meng Huo could not finish the sentence. He had already been taken three times, and still he meant to resist to the last so long as he had soldiers left to him. The trouble was that there was no one left to call on for aid. Zhuge Liang had sent Feng Xi to put down the tribes across Nanzhong, winning them over with just rule until they laid down their arms. The only ally Meng Huo had left was Wutugu. Even Dailai Dongzhu regarded this as the last of the reinforcements — because that general, Feng Xi, had marched on the remaining tribes and accepted their surrender.

If they catch me again this time... will I even be able to rise once more?

He hesitated, groping for an answer he did not have. Zhurong sighed.

"I'm not asking you to answer right this instant. I just want you to think about this family's future."

She left him with that and followed Huaman into the tent. Meng Huo opened his mouth to ask what she had meant — but then,

"Haha! Well? What do you say, King Meng Huo!"

Wutugu came striding back from driving Shu off, and Meng Huo greeted him with open delight.

"The Rattan Armor Army's momentum is truly formidable!"

He could only marvel. The battle lines of Shu, which had always been so fierce, had crumbled as if they were nothing. With power like this behind him, he was sure he could take back his capital and his lands.

"Even so, King Wutugu — Zhuge Liang is a man of rare cunning and endless schemes. We ought to be careful."

"No problem at all! No weapon on this earth can pierce rattan armor!"

Having seen Shu's arms fail against the rattan with his own eyes, Wutugu was swollen with a confidence that bordered on arrogance.

Wei Yan returned to the main army and made his report on the rattan armor. Zhuge Liang listened, then tapped a finger against the table.

"Soaked in fragrant oil and left to dry, over and over..."

"Yes. Just as the Flying General said — spear and sword would not go through it."

Even Wei Yan, who had insisted Guan Suo's claim was nonsense, could only concede once he had seen it with his own eyes. An enemy that turned aside both blade and spear was something none of them had ever faced. The assembled generals sat struck dumb.

"Withdraw for now. I shall summon you again once I have ordered my thoughts."

Zhuge Liang dismissed the officers around him. Guan Suo was just turning to leave the tent when —

"A moment. Flying General, remain behind."

"...Ah. Yes, sir."

I stayed in Zhuge Liang's tent with a faintly awkward look on my face.

Did I overdo it?

I had put forward plan after plan — to pile up merit for my own advancement, and to keep our casualties down so we would still have an army when the northern campaign came.

"Youzhi. How do you believe we ought to crush the Rattan Armor Army?"

With the other generals gone, Zhuge Liang asked it easily, almost comfortably. I had delivered results often enough by now that he had started coming to me for my thoughts first.

At this rate, I might end up assigned to the Prime Minister's office as an advisor before long...

The thought crossed my mind, but I answered the question with everything I had.

"...Hmm. Yes. That aligns with my own thinking."

Satisfied, Zhuge Liang called the generals back in and issued his orders.

Two days later.

"Rattan Armor Army! Let's have another go!"

Wei Yan marched his troops up to the front of Wutugu's camp and called them out.

"Shut your mouth! His Majesty hasn't the time to waste on the likes of you!"

Tu An hurled abuse at him. Wei Yan did not so much as blink. He only sneered.

"This frightened, and you call yourselves the finest warriors in the Nanman lands? I should have known — without your precious armor, you're nothing but cowards!"

The Rattan Armor Army leaned so heavily on that armor that Wei Yan drove the point in like a knife and twisted. Wutugu and his rattan troops bristled with rage.

"Fine! I'll give you the fight you want!!"

Wei Yan clashed with Wutugu's host again and again after that, and still he could not cut through that stubborn armor. Each time, the Shu army broke and fled, and the rattan troops seized the camps they left behind. The next day Wei Yan would come back with his men and pick another fight. Again and again, Shu abandoned its stockades and ran.

And every time they fled, they left supplies behind — provisions, costly treasures, all of it discarded in the retreat. Greed did the rest. The rattan troops scooped up the spoils. Victory after victory, prize after prize, and the Rattan Armor Army drank itself drunk on success. Even Meng Huo, who had at first insisted they watch for a trap, stopped paying attention once the wins kept coming.

Without ever realizing it, they were moving their army exactly as Shu intended.